Agenda and decisions

Salford City Council - Record of Decision

I, Councillor Hinds, Lead Member for Finance & Support Services, in exercise of the powers contained within the Council Constitution, do hereby:

Approve the virement of £413,787 within the 2018/19 capital programme to cover the change in spend profile of the High Street Clearance.

The Reasons are - faster than anticipated re-housing rates has increased spend in 2018 and brought the requirement for demolition forward in the anticipated programme.  Coupled with increased costs of utility disconnections this has increased the required resource for 2018/19. 

Delays in bringing forward the demolition of the estate will lead to increased costs of managing the estate.

Options considered and rejected were - not to bring forward the demolition of the estate which would lead to increased costs of managing the estate.

Assessment of risk – medium: Delays in bringing forward the demolition of the estate will lead to increased costs of managing the estate.  The completion of pre demolition surveys and utility disconnections provide cost certainty and best value for the procurement of the Demolition anticipated in 2018.

The source of funding is – 2018/19 Capital Programme for Creating a New Pendleton.

Legal Advice obtained (Tony Hatton, Principal Solicitor) – as set out in the Council’s Constitution, each directorate is allocated a budget amount as their share of the annual revenue budget approved by Council, and capital virements (movement of budgets between approved capital schemes) are permitted subject to the approvals being made by authorised persons as set out in section 7.4 of the Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules. 

For a virement of the amount requested, it would appear that section 7.4 (g) applies and the approval of lead member for financial and support services in consultation with the section 151 officer is required. Section 7.4 reads as follows:

“7.4 The person set out below shall be entitled to vire across budget heads or budget amounts as follows:

a) a Chief Officer may vire between budget heads under their control and within their directorates £150,000 in any financial year.

b) the Member(s) of the Cabinet for a relevant service area(s) may, with the approval of the relevant Lead Member, vire between budget heads within their control sums of £150,000 and over, up to £350,000 in any financial year.

c) the elected City Mayor may vire sums up to £100,000,000 between the budget amounts of different directorates in any financial year.

d) the Assistant Director Finance shall be responsible for authorising all virements from the central inflation and contingency provision to other service budgets.

e) any such virement must be notified to the Assistant Director Finance and virements of above £150,000 must be reported for information to the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

f) any virement above £ 100,000,000 will require the approval of full Council.

g) Virements within the capital programme of up to £2,000,000, are subject to the approval of the Lead Member for Finance and Support Services  ...  view the full decision text for item 3a